From the Whitsundays we worked our way down the Queensland coast, covering several hundred kilometres a day and stopping overnight at Bundaberg, then Beachmere on Moreton Bay just north of Brisbane. The sugar cane harvest in central and north Queensland was in full swing, with cane trains and harvesters crisscrossing vast tracts of ripe, sweet-smelling cane field. Near Beachmere we crossed the short bridge from the mainland to Bribie Island to check out the residential canal estates that have been expanding here over recent years, and on the way back we stopped briefly to admire the sunset over Pumicestone Passage between the island and the mainland. Perched on the horizon were the Glasshouse Mountains - these are not real mountains but remnant volcanic plugs, the last vestiges of ancient volcanic activity in this area. After Beachmere we turned inland and passed through Toowoomba before crossing the border into New South Wales. From there we drove through the scenic countryside of the Warrumbungle Ranges at Coonabarabran, then west across the lonely Hay Plain. We arrived a couple of days later back in Mt Gambier after a journey of four weeks and 10,000 km. We were surprised at how dry some parts of Queensland remain - the drought of the century has certainly hit hard and onerous water use restrictions remain in force. In comparison, Mt Gambier is very fortunate to continue to be watered liberally from its beloved Blue Lake (a turquoise-blue water-filled caldera on the edge of the town containing 36,000 million litres of pure water recharged by inflows from deep aquifers).
We have returned to Mt Gambier to attend to some arrangements for my father who was admitted to "The Oaks" nursing home last month. He wanted to stay and live independently in his own house in the centre of town for the remainder of his life but failing health has now made this impossible. He also had to retire from his part-time job and give up driving his own car a few months ago. Still, he's done well for a 97 year old, and he remains physically mobile and keen to get in the car and go driving (as a passenger) whenever the opportunity arises. Yesterday we took him to Port MacDonnell 25 km to the south for a drive along the coast and fish and chips at a cafe on the foreshore. When we arrived at The Oaks to pick him up he raced me to the front door, and I'm not a slow walker.
His new home at The Oaks is at Yahl just south-east of Mt Gambier. It is located in a beautiful rural setting with a row of tall oaks along one side and a spectacular magnolia tree at the entrance. Yahl is a fertile farming district well known for its cheese production. It is also where my father had his dairy farm for decades and where his mother lived as a girl. She was the daughter of a Swedish couple who had separately come alone to South Australia from Stockholm on sailing ships around 1890, while still teenagers! They married, farmed and raised their family at Yahl. So things seem to be turning full circle - hopefully there's still a few years left in this cycle.
We will stay in Mt Gambier for a few weeks before returning to China for my next teaching engagement, this time in Tianjin, Nanjing (Nanking) and Yuxi. When that's finished we will head north for a bit - we have never visited the far north provinces bordering Russia, Mongolia and North Korea, so that's our objective this time. It will be winter and very cold with outside temperatures around minus 30C, but we expect the discomfort will be more than compensated for by the photogenic ice-white landscapes we hope to see.
